• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Xbox One March Update Impressions Thread [Now Available]

The Flash

Banned
The March Update has now been released!

Current OS Version
6.2.10698.0 (xb_rel_1403.140301-2200) fre

Twitch Broadcasting
An update to the Twitch App will enable broadcasting next week

Marc Whitten on Future Updates
We value all of the feedback we’re getting from you. Keep it coming! We are listening. We know external hard drive storage is another big one on your list. It’s on our list too. We’re working on that for a future update and will keep you posted. We’re also working on friends notification improvements and experimenting with how to make that better. Just as we do with Xbox 360, we’ll be continuing regular updates to Xbox One – some will be big, like this March update, and some will be smaller. Big or small, we’re committed to delivering continuous innovation through system updates like this one. Thanks for your feedback.

Update Notes from Xbox's Marc Whitten
•Get to your friends list faster. The friends list is now front and center on the homepage of the Friends app. Click the Social tile on Home, or say “Xbox, go to Friends” to see who’s online and what they’re up to. From there you can quickly send messages and get into a party.
•Party chat on by default. When you party up, chat audio is turned on by default.
•Chat with friends playing different games. Party chat is now separated from people playing your game, so you can chat with your friends who are online or you can chat with everyone playing the game.
•“Invite friends to game” option available in your multiplayer titles. Similar to Xbox 360 titles, when you’re inside a game's menu you have a simpler and quicker way to set up your multiplayer battles. Selecting “Invite friends” lets you invite friends to your game and party.
•See a list of “Recent Players.” This is a simple list that shows you Xbox Live members you’ve recently played with, making it easier to stay in touch with people, add new friends after your multiplayer sessions, or report a player for bad behavior.
•Twitch live streaming support. The best broadcasting and spectating experience on any game console is on its way to Xbox One with the new Twitch app launching on March 11, just say “Xbox broadcast” to start sharing. Xbox One is the only next-gen console that allows you to archive your Twitch broadcasts and view live Twitch streams regardless of their original source.
•Dolby Digital sound. Optical out now supports 5.1 Dolby Digital, enabling devices such as sound bars and headsets with only optical in to be able to receive 5.1 Dolby Digital from Xbox One over optical. We’re also adding support for Dolby Digital surround sound over HDMI. Now you’ll be able to have the best sound quality no matter what speaker setup you are using.
•We will now support 50Hz output to Xbox One. You can set the live TV app to display at 50Hz for full or fill modes, fixing the frame rate issues some users in Europe have been experiencing while watching live TV on Xbox One.
•Volume up/down adjustments. We’re making it easier to adjust the volume on your Xbox One. Now, you can tailor the number of volume increments when using “Xbox volume up” or “Xbox volume down” voice commands.
•New ways to stay connected with SmartGlass. We’re introducing new ways for you to stay connected with your friends through Xbox One SmartGlass. Receive notifications of Xbox Live messages, check out what your friends are doing, and see their latest highlight clips. You can even unsnap apps with the tap of a finger – all from your personal device.
•Support for new Xbox One accessories. Xbox One now supports the recently announced Xbox One Stereo Headset and Adapter, the Xbox One Media Remote with a dedicated OneGuide button, as well as third party headsets.
•Browser improvements. When you’re searching for content, there’s now a direct link to IE to see related results on the web. New gesture and controller features let you directly zoom and pan Bing and Google maps. And search is even faster in IE – just highlight a phrase on a web page and press the menu button to search Bing and learn more.
•IR blasting of power and volume to TVs/AVRs is now available in all regions.
•Easy sound bar setup. Your audio sound bar set up just got a lot easier. You no longer need to type in the model number for most sound bars or AVRs when setting up TV on Xbox One.
•General improvements. Last, but not least, a few miscellaneous updates like the ability to view Game Clips while in Snap mode and a new passkey feature to protect user settings.
http://news.xbox.com/2014/03/xbox-one-march-update

Pre-release Notes
  • Fix for sign-in failing that requires system restart
  • IE and Bing not launching in non-English locales
  • Controller firmware not updating with chat headset plugged in
  • Messages are too easy to delete by accident since the Delete button is highlighted by default when opening a message (instead of Close button)
http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/xbox_update_preview/xbox_one_preview_support/f/4583/t/1697952.aspx

General changes
  • Option to disable Kinect hand gestures while watching a video
  • Kinect gesture and voice command tutorials are in the Kinect settings menu
  • Ability to choose the value by which volume increases or decreases when using the “Xbox, Volume Up” or Xbox, Volume Down” voice commands
  • --Settings > TV > Troubleshooting > Audio > Volume change
  • Optical audio is now supported
  • NOTE – Some users are currently experiencing issues with this feature
  • "Resume Games Quickly" is no longer in Beta, the Beta label in settings has been removed
Twitch App
Twitch standby screen
4h8xmfi.jpg


Picture in picture
xHlJQ2W.jpg


Number of viewers
26gwvwJ.jpg


Chat feed
tsZs88O.jpg

  • Twitch streaming via an Xbox One will be enabled in this update
  • The “Xbox, Broadcast” voice command will begin a Twitch streaming session
  • --NOTE – using this command during the early access period will only start the Twitch app
  • As before, you will be able to view Twitch streams that are being broadcasted from other systems i.e. PS4, PC, etc.
  • Chat is now enabled
  • --Name color and emoticons included
  • Viewers can send party invites to Broadcasters
  • --Broadcasters, in turn, can send invites to viewers in the Chat
  • Ability to broadcast a full-screen view of the game you're playing or use an on-screen viewer indicator to keep an eye on how popular your live broadcast is
  • Ability to archive broadcasts
  • Ability to set up a notification for when a Favorite begins a broadcast
  • Earn unique Media Achievements
  • Xbox LIVE policy moderators will be keeping an eye out for abuse of the Twitch app and have the ability to temporarily or permanently ban players. They can also remove their ability to broadcast over Twitch, without banning them
  • NEW - Xbox One streams 1280x720, 30 fps, ~2.5 Mbps on Twitch
  • NEW - Kinect picture-in-picture can be set in any corner of the screen
Party App
  • Ability to see what games/apps your party members are using if they are not in the same game as you
  • “Turn Party Chat On” is turned on by default
  • Option to send someone a Party invite, Game invite, or Party & Game invite
  • Option to invite Party to Game
Friends App
  • On the Dashboard, the Friends App will cycle through the number of friends, favorites, and broadcasters who are currently online
  • Friends are listed by whoever is currently online
  • People who are listed as Favorites will show up first and will have a star on the top right side of their gamerpic
  • An icon in the upper corner of someone's name within your followers list will show you if you are following them back yet or not. If the icon appears then you are following them back
  • Ability to see Recent Players
  • Find Someone is on the top level page
  • New Menu button options
  • --Send message
  • --Invite to Party
  • --Compare games
  • --Find someone
  • --People I’ve blocked
  • New Profile page options allow you to send game and party invites
Xbox One Controller Update
  • This is a firmware patch that will allow the Xbox One Headset Adapter to work with your Xbox One Controller
  • --NOTE – If you already have an Xbox One Headset Adapter, install this update so that you can use it with your compatible headset
  • A micro-USB cable is needed in order to install this update
  • To update your Xbox One Controller go to Settings > System > Update controller > Follow instructions > Connect headset adapter >
    profit???
    > Enjoy in-game audio & chat with friends and loved ones
 
Friends setup is objectively better, but since a number of the other features aren't really implemented yet, I can't really comment on the updates other than, "so far so good."
 
The Friends app is a little laggy, but the organization and accessibility is far improved.

Party chat works great now. We had 3 people in a party with 2 constantly switching games and the third playing solo in another game without any issues. Tested Killer Instinct, Ryse, Forza 5, BF4 and PvZ all with no problems.

Volume up and down can be customized to the amount of clicks when using the voice commands for TV volume. Very nice.

Settings app is much faster.

Snap performance seems slightly improved as well, but video still stutters sometimes.

Overall, I'm very pleased and think this'll be in awesome shape for Titanfall.
 

BraXzy

Member
For changing TV volume via voice, does that require a certain kind of TV? I'm not sure if I was saying the right command but my volume has never worked through Kinect.
 

neurophd

Member
The Friends app is a little laggy, but the organization and accessibility is far improved.

Party chat works great now. We had 3 people in a party with 2 constantly switching games and the third playing solo in another game without any issues. Tested Killer Instinct, Ryse, Forza 5, BF4 and PvZ all with no problems.

Volume up and down can be customized to the amount of clicks when using the voice commands for TV volume. Very nice.

Settings app is much faster.

Snap performance seems slight improved as well, but video still stutters sometimes.

Overall, I'm very pleased and think this'll be in awesome shape for Titanfall.

Can snapped apps' volume be controlled independently?
 

Montresor

Member
The Friends app is a little laggy, but the organization and accessibility is far improved.

Party chat works great now. We had 3 people in a party with 2 constantly switching games and the third playing solo in another game without any issues. Tested Killer Instinct, Ryse, Forza 5, BF4 and PvZ all with no problems.

Volume up and down can be customized to the amount of clicks when using the voice commands for TV volume. Very nice.

Settings app is much faster.

Snap performance seems slight improved as well, but video still stutters sometimes.

Overall, I'm very pleased and think this'll be in awesome shape for Titanfall.

Where is Mortimer, Thuway, and cboat's god now??? Haha, only joking. =)

Nice to see that the system is equalling or surpassing 360's stellar party chat... finally. I'm very very impressed with how Microsoft seems to be bending over backward to make a plethora of OS and system improvements just for Titanfall. Respawn have to be a little pleased with that arrangement.
 
Where is Mortimer, Thuway, and cboat's god now??? Haha, only joking. =)

Nice to see that the system is equalling or surpassing 360's stellar party chat... finally. I'm very very impressed with how Microsoft seems to be bending over backward to make a plethora of OS and system improvements just for Titanfall. Respawn have to be a little pleased with that arrangement.

These changes would have been made regardless. It's not like they needed Respawn to tell them party chat sucked.
 

Montresor

Member
These changes would have been made regardless. It's not like they needed Respawn to tell them party chat sucked and the friends list should default to while is online right now.

True, but I believe it was Respawn themselves who requested a change to stick sensitivity on the controller and the removal of the sharpening filter on the upscaler. Both changes which have been applied to the recent February update.
 

malfcn

Member
I think everything they addressed has been improved. But there is always room for more.
Don't forget, you can now disable Kinect gestures while video is playing too.
 
True, but I believe it was Respawn themselves who requested a change to stick sensitivity on the controller and the removal of the sharpening filter on the upscaler. Both changes which have been applied to the recent February update.

Again, everyone hated the upscaler, not just Respawn. The analog sticks are the one thing I'll give credit to Respawn for. I noticed something was off with them at launch, but very few people seemed to notice. I was thrilled when I heard they were being tweaked.
 
Friends app is better. Party app is better.

Also appreciate the rotating friends list counter on the home screen (was that there before?). It rotates between online friends, online favorites, and friends who are broadcasting.
 

Montresor

Member
Can anyone confirm if there are any changes made to the achievements app?

The February update brought these three changes, which made a horrible horrible app so much better:

1) When you earn an achievement, holding the Xbox button now takes you straight to the achievement pages, letting you bypass the old notifications system and extra, unnecessary button clicks.

2) When viewing a game's achievement page, you don't need to click on an earned achievement to find its description anymore. The achievement's description will now be superimposed on the achievement icon... it was so annoying how before you had to click on the achievement to get the description.

3) When viewing an achievement... there did not used to be a proper "Back" button. Sometimes it would be 100% fucking impossible to "go back" to a game's achievements page. Pushing the B button would take you back to a game or to Home... totally unreal that this ever made launch. They fixed this with a "More achievements" button. Very welcome, but belated addition.

Any other improvements?
 
Party chat works great now. We had 3 people in a party with 2 constantly switching games and the third playing solo in another game without any issues. Tested Killer Instinct, Ryse, Forza 5, BF4 and PvZ all with no problems.

I don't have an Xbox One so I'm unfamiliar with how it works. By the way you're describing things, party chat on the 360 has operated like this since a year or two after launch.

How did party chat work on the Xbox One prior to this update?
 
I don't have an Xbox One so I'm unfamiliar with how it works. By the way you're describing things, party chat on the 360 has operated like this since a year or two after launch.

How did party chat work on the Xbox One prior to this update?

It's an app instead of built into the OS and is tied in with the game invite system. If a game only supported 2 players but 3 were in party chat, the party had to be reformed with 2 people, the game started, then reinvite third person. It sucked. Now 2 can play one game while others can play another and you can invite players to the party and invite to games separately.
 

Bsigg12

Member
Friends app is better. Party app is better.

Also appreciate the rotating friends list counter on the home screen (was that there before?). It rotates between online friends, online favorites, and friends who are broadcasting.

No that's new. It would just say x friends online. I really like that it tells you people are broadcasting, that opens a ton of possibilities.
 

iMax

Member
No that's new. It would just say x friends online. I really like that it tells you people are broadcasting, that opens a ton of possibilities.

'Xbox, watch <gamertag>' – hope this works!

Any news on toast notifications for when a favourite signs in?
 

Friction

Member
The Friends app is a little laggy, but the organization and accessibility is far improved.

Party chat works great now. We had 3 people in a party with 2 constantly switching games and the third playing solo in another game without any issues. Tested Killer Instinct, Ryse, Forza 5, BF4 and PvZ all with no problems.

Volume up and down can be customized to the amount of clicks when using the voice commands for TV volume. Very nice.

Settings app is much faster.

Snap performance seems slightly improved as well, but video still stutters sometimes.

Overall, I'm very pleased and think this'll be in awesome shape for Titanfall.

Is the party chat compatible with the old one?
 

derFeef

Member
Oh thank god, I was giving up in the other thread, haha.

Optical audio is not working for me. The receiver or turtle beach headsets are recognizing the signal, but there is no audio coming out of anything.
 
Still no screenshot command I suppose.
Do you have other shortcuts, for example, xbox snap favorites instead of xbox snap activity / favorites.
 
Updated my controller, Analog sticks feel more accurate. Don't really know how to describe it. Less dead zone perhaps. resume game instantly feature is not listed with the (beta) tag on it anymore. Party system much, much better. Had no disconnects at all.
Oh and the Volume control setting....Hallelujah!
Last, but definitely not least, turning off gesture control during videos is a godsend!
Great step forward MS! Still a lot to go. Want a screenshot option, and would like to be able to snap the friends and achievement apps....
 

Bsigg12

Member
Guess they really did rebuild it from scratch then.

Yea. Kind of insane really. Spend a year crunching on all software related things leading to launch to have to completely scrap an entire set of systems and rebuild them post launch.
 

Kajiba

Member
Got the update when I turn on my console. I like the new Friends list.

Also realize that the profile that you're on, pops up on the feed activity.
 
Shamelessly stealing these from Reddit, but both of these look like nice features.

Ability to change Kinect to go in multiple increments for volume control

Ability to disable Kinect gestures when watching video

The Kinect gestures were never a huge problem, but every now and then when someone leaned over to get a drink on the table it would think they were trying to do something, so I'll be using that feature for sure.
 

zou

Member
I think everything they addressed has been improved. But there is always room for more.
Don't forget, you can now disable Kinect gestures while video is playing too.

thank god, xbox has been going crazy detecting movement that didn't exist whenever I was watching videos. You would have thought they would caught it during development..
 
Got the update but I'm not seeing the ability to change how much the volume changes with the voice command

It does seem a bit snappier flipping between between apps and the home screen.

Still wish they'd bring back the guide button. Really miss that about the one
 

Prine

Banned
Apparently they've fixed the 50hz issue? Think I read a Gaffer noting there's an option for it in "TV & One guide > Troubleshooting"?
 

malfcn

Member
The stick update is not in this patch.
They were fixed in the last update.

FOUND IT!
Settings > TV & OneGuide > Troubleshooting > Audio

This is also the area under Video, that allows 50Hz output.

For the Kinect adjustment and frequency change.
 

Rayme

Member
Sticks should be good as of the Feb update, automatically. If there's a new USB-required update, then that's for something else.
 
Wasn't one of the cboat rumors that the party chat in the update only works for Titanfall? I just was in a party with my three former room mates who are also in the preview with me and two of were in CoD, another in NBA and myself in Tomb Raider and things worked flawlessly even when we all switched games to play CoD together.

Also, CoD is a fucking chore to play after playing Titanfall. UGH it's so slow.

EDIT: Also, I fucking LOVE being able to change the volume more in the settings when saying Xbox. volume up/down.
 
Top Bottom